Sunday, 4 March 2012

A weekend of Activism

Dear Diary,

The past weekend has been one full of activism, feminism,
and GLITTER!

First- Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras 2012 was a blast!
The organisation I work for, PWD (People With Disability Incorporated) teamed
up with the CP Alliance, Intellectual Disability Rights Council, and Touching
Base, and submitted a joint entry themed “Sexuality and sex/gender diversity do
not end with disability”. People with disability have historically been viewed
as asexual, a very discriminating misconception, and one that these
organisations, particularly Touching Base, is aiming to dispel.

It was raining on and off during the time we were waiting in
the marshalling area, luckily Daphnee, our Superhero Communications Manager,
had bought extra ponchos that she provided us. Not only do they keep you dry,
but warm, as those cheap things are like wrapping yourself in gladwrap! My
friend, AW, was attacked by a glitter fairy, and as my other friend, KR said
“That shit is like herpes, once it’s with you, it stays for life”. I think I
still have some in my hairline…

During the actual march, from Hyde Park to Moore Park, it
stopped raining. We got heaps of cheers from the crowd and all grew hoarse from
cheering and blowing whistles ourselves! It was an amazing experience, although
the cardboard signs that we had painted were totally trashed!

From a wet, windy wonderful night, to a fine, laissez-faire,
feminist afternoon. My friend AW and I attended ‘The F-Word: an Afternoon of
Feminist Debate’ at The Sydney Opera House.

In particular, I wanted to write a summary of Naomi Wolf’s
lecture. Wolf, in trying to answer the question of why Feminism is seen as
irrelevant by significant proportion of today’s youth, and what are the next
steps for Feminism, explored the antecedents to previous Feminist movements.

Firstly, the Victorian Movement, which paints women as
fragile victims of their culture, does not entice young people today, as its’
framework does not make room for our current lives, where women are active in
the workforce, and more control over their reproductive health. It also does
not paint women as having enough agency- we can change withinthe culture but do not have enough status to
change THE culture.

Secondly, the Marxist Movement, is more helpful in terms of
providing a framework for working women, but is not able to sit with Western
advanced capitalist consumption. Young women of today want a Movement where
they don’t have to forsake consumer goods that make their life easier
(*dripping sarcasm* I desperately need that IPhone App that tells me when I get
my period!!!)

Lastly, the Existentialist Movement, particularly post War
French Existentialism of Simone DeBouvoir. Wolf hypothesises that young people
today do not connect with the ardent Individualism that Existentialism
espouses. Women of today dismiss this theoretical framework because it focusses
too much on the self, and does not encapsulate our whole being as daughters,
friends, mothers, aunts. This aggressively Individualistic approach is probably
what gave birth to the negative stereotypes the media holds today about
feminists: Man Hating, Hairy Armpitted crusaders that yell at a man if he
offers up his bus seat to her.

Wolf’s conclusion was that, in order for the Feminist
Movement to move forward and out of the stagnant water of which it has been
sitting for the past 30 or so years, we need to find another framework. Wolf
advocates that the Enlightenment Framework, founded primarily by Mary
Wollstonecraft

The Enlightenment framework can be useful, as it is based
around human rights, and so can be transferrable across cultures, religions,
and political and economic systems. It is about equality of the sexes (remember
equality does not equal ‘sameness’- it’s still polite for a man to hold open a
heavy door for a woman!). Using a human rights lens, women in Western Countries
that feel they’ve achieved “equality” can look to other places in the World and
realise there is still work to do. Wolf explained that this will take the now plateaued
‘Western Feminism’ and turn it into a ‘Global Feminist Movement’! Huzzah!

I really enjoyed Wolf’s pieces as she put into words what I’ve
always felt but haven’t examined enough to break down and analyse. For those of
you who know me, you know I’ve always said I am a Human Rights Advocate in everyday
life, and I try and educate my peers about human rights abuses whenever I hear
about them. (Ooh, I just had a wonderful thought- I’m going to do some reading and
write about Feminism and normalisation theory. Stay tuned people)

Anyway, the point is, it’s been a fantastic weekend. Now if
you’ll excuse me, I have to go cough up some glitter I still have in my lungs!